This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Who should you hire? Let’s start out with the basic functions of a tech company: 1) Engineering 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Business development 5) PR 6) Design 7) Product Management 8) HR 9) Operations 10) Finance Ok, that's just overwhelming. Getting people to join your company is a key goal of early PR.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

One of the large parts of the burn was PR, Marketing and attending conferences. When the CEO of an early-stage startup tells me that they plan to hire a COO I’m usually not interested in the next meeting. Who does finance report to? 12 months later the president and the CEO had moved on.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Cofounder Early Stage 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

A good early-stage CEO needs to be accessible, to be accountable for producing results and should be establishing the cultural norms of the company through direct leadership at all levels. I spent a ton of time with the CEO and VP Finance understanding the businesses, its customers and its operational challenges.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Entrepreneur Homepage Startups Starting a Business Home How-To Guides Startup Basics Business Ideas Business Planning Startup Financing Success Stories Home-Based Business Starting a Business Play Video How to Take a New Product from Just an Idea to a Business (Video). Financing Some Jobs Act Proposals Make Headway.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

Founders typically get their equity in a company once — at the time of founding and then get diluted with each subsequent round of financing. This is because excessive capital becomes toxic for an early stage company. The rush to hire results in a relaxation of “hire only A players rule.”

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

Altgate

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

The presentation was on outsourcing generally, not just software engineering and the audience was very early stage companies (some yet to be founded). Now, for very early stage companies, you may be thinking, “I don’t have any cash, so outsourcing isn’t an option.&# PR/Marketing. Branding/Copy.

Software Review 65

Software Review Offshore Startup Boston 65

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

Founders typically get their equity in a company once — at the time of founding and then get diluted with each subsequent round of financing. This is because excessive capital becomes toxic for an early stage company. The rush to hire results in a relaxation of “hire only A players rule.”

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

Side Note : Upfront has hired Kerry Bennett as a member of our executive management team to run marketing – please follow her on Twitter here ]. So we decided to hire a partner, Stuart Lander , who would run operations for Upfront Ventures. And more recently she ran marketing for DogVacay, run by Upfront alum Aaron Hirschhorn.

Portfolio 150

Portfolio PR Partner Early Stage 150

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

Other angel investors and smaller funds also copied this innovation, and many of these new Micro-VC fund managers (like me) came from operational backgrounds at companies like PayPal/eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, or Google, rather than finance backgrounds from investment banking or Wall Street. and no, we didn’t.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

Business Development for Early Stage Startups – [link]. How to hire a programmer when you’re not a programmer – [link]. Crowd funding offers entrepreneurs a shot at financing their dream – [link]. Small business and startup issues: net neutrality and H.R. 1 – [link]. – [link].

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 5, 2014

Another case in point, Spark Capital just hired Kate Bolin --someone that had been interviewed at a portfolio company of theirs that had made a good enough impression that they labeled her as someone to stay in touch with. At the early stage, the ranks of the non-partner investor are disappearing.

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Early Stage Cofounder Angel Groups 114

The Equity Kicker

JULY 8, 2019

The other most common focus areas for platform teams are to employ talent and PR/marketing experts who give advice to portfolio companies on strategy in these areas and have relationships and discounts with pre-vetted agencies who can deliver the work. Entrepreneurship is becoming more science and less art.

Portfolio 84

Portfolio LP Venture Capital Partner 84

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

The value of a great hiring process. Founders should stay involved in every hiring decision for as long as possible. I’m always surprised at how often people still get hired without extensive reference checks. Your company won’t survive if you’ve got a great idea surrounded by a mediocre team. The importance of reference checks.

Founder 60

Founder Due Diligence Vertical Early Stage 60

mashable.com

OCTOBER 11, 2011

10 Essential PR Tips for Startups. Sign up for her course on “ PR for Startups ” to learn more about getting media coverage for your fledgling business. Not to mention, early-stage startups usually only employ a few people focused on product and development. TIP: As a startup – use PR for link building.

PR 103

PR Startup Social Media Technical Review 103

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. Furthermore, when faced with adversity only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Don’t hire people with skills and qualifications similar to yours. Early Stage.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Everybody was doing marketing blitzes, over-paying to steal the best staff, pimping out urban offices to the nines , and hiring in a frenzy. It’s clear that the exuberance has returned to hiring, paying large compensation, poaching staff with big payouts and large fund raising events at lofty prices.

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. While it’s useful to be able to have a sales forecast and expense budget early on, it’s not something you need until you’ve validated your idea. Step 5: Get financed.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. He needs to generate enough profit so that he can grow organically and build his business systematically, and without expecting a lot of outside financing. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. He needs to generate enough profit so that he can grow organically and build his business systematically, and without expecting a lot of outside financing. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

With new micro VC entrants into to early-stage investing plus increased competition from angels, incubators and the like – traditional VCs have taken notice. So VCs spent a couple of years experimenting with earlier-stage investing, which is OK. The Explosion in Early-Stage Innovation. There are also others.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

And no matter what the latest trends indicate, you will eventually have to spend money on PR and marketing. million in venture financing. No doubt early-stage companies can be started on a shoestring by low-paid entrepreneurs, but when financing a scalable, sustainable product, a free application server won’t make much of a difference.

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

That wasn't a bubble bursting issue--that was a poor financing strategy issue of people getting caught with their pants down, hands in the cookie jar, and all the metaphors you can think of at once. Some of this thinking is also driven by folks who aren't well connected to the rest of the later stage venture community.

Later Stage 99

Later Stage Down Round Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 99

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

Every marketing communication hire couldn’t wait to produce the next great ad or PR program. In an early stage startup, instead of sales being up front, the point departments are likely to be product development and customer development. In an IP licensing business, legal and finance are the sharp end of the stick.

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 126

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Only after reaching $1M in CMRR should you consider hiring European sales and services execs behind customer demand. Together, CMRR, Cashflow, Churn, CAC, and CLTV make up the “5 C’s of SaaS Finance. Save Asia for post-IPO Single instance, multi-tenant, single datacenter - Have only one version of the code in production.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48